Battle of the Brainteasers

By CAROL VORDERMAN, Daily Mail

Last updated at 16:48 15 September 2005

SUDOKU

Love at first sight? I never really believed in it until it happened to me on holiday six months ago. With one quick glance, I was entranced, and 59 seconds later, I was utterly and slavishly devoted. And I haven't looked back since.

No, I'm not talking about a new romance, but my first wonderful and tantalising glimpse of the number game Sudoku, which has taken the nation by storm.

My first ever Sudoku puzzle literally changed my life. I found my 16-year-old daughter Katie sitting with a puzzle on an Easter break in the Caribbean. I looked over her shoulder, spotted a grid of boxes and random numbers which I couldn't solve, and I was both infuriated and enthralled at the same time.

It took under a minute for my adrenalin to kick in - and I was hooked. Now, for the first time in 20 years, I've found a passion which totally consumes me - a puzzle which can empty my mind of any other worries or thoughts save for the tantalising grid of numbers and spaces sitting in front of me, inviting me to unlock their secrets.

And I'm not alone. Thousands more people are sucked into the Sudoku 'zone' every week.

Are you a word wizard or a number cruncher? Tell us which puzzle you prefer at the bottom of the article.

I travelled on my regular rushhour train recently, and a whole carriage of commuters who would previously have gazed out of the window in a stupor were all sitting heads down, scribbling solutions to the Sudoku puzzles on their laps.

You can always spot a Sudoku addict. They're always in a hurry - to grab a precious five minutes for problem-solving. And they normally trail torn-off pieces of newspaper wherever they go. (My own handbags have grown bigger and bigger to accommodate my ever increasing collection of Sudoku puzzles.)

Over the past few months, thousands of brains have been sharpening over the country. Now research has proved that puzzles such as Sudoku give the brain a much-needed workout and improve mental age by up to 14 years.

Sudoku is a buzz and a challenge

True, crosswords, too, can help, according to neuroscientist Professor Ian Robertson. But I'm sorry, word fans - those six across and five downs just don't do it for me.

I've never picked up a crossword and felt my fingers tingling with the thrill of the challenge ahead; never looked across a bus and seen teenagers and businessmen alike hunched over the cryptics.

Nor have I ever felt the real buzz of filling in a crossword answer and imagining thousands of other keen brains across the country going 'live' with the same answers.

'Crosswords are like reading a dictionary'

Because frankly, I find crosswords dull. Crosswords, to me, are just like reading a dictionary. Finding another word which means 'dirigible' demands nothing like the mental challenge of plucking a number out of nowhere, and devising a logical pattern to make it fit a grid.

A crossword seems to be retention of pure fact (this word means the same as that word equals the answer). Cryptic crosswords are even worse. The same sort of clues seem to pop up over and again (there's one about an egg, a yolk and a zero which goes way over my head no matter how many times I see it!)

I've never in my life completed a crossword. And I've never been able to leave a Sudoku puzzle unfinished.

You could argue that this is only because I love numbers - and true, here, for the first time since leaving Cambridge University is my opportunity to play with figures.

All-inclusive puzzle

But there's an electricity and excitement about Sudoku which I've never found elsewhere. It is the 'cool' craze which is taking the 'nerd' out of maths - and making numbers fun for all.

It attracts everyone, regardless of sex or age. On a plane to Ireland last month, a young couple in their early 20s shrieked when they recognised me. They fumbled in their bag and produced a Sudoku puzzle with the sort of pride usually reserved for showing off a new baby.

'Look at this, Carol,' they said, 'How would you go about finding this figure?'

Now perhaps I'm being slightly unfair to word lovers here, but I can't imagine being accosted in the street by someone waving a crossword (Stop! I'm looking for another word which means 'conglomerate').

Most Sudoku lovers, such as me, agree that this tantalising puzzle is sharpening our brains like nothing else in our adult day-to-day lives.

Forget the bums and tums, girls, this is the workout to have.

One 82-year-old e-mailed to say it was keeping him young, a nurse emailed to say doctors are giving it to long-stay patients in hospital, and a teacher told me it is regularly used to warm-up classes of secondary school children.

So Sudoku is touching our lives, sharpening our brains and thrilling us in our thousands.

I know there are those who will disagree. My partner, Des, for example. He mutters: 'Bingo for brains,' whenever he stumbles upon another Sudoku puzzle.

But I'm proud to stand up and admit that I'm a Sudoku addict - and I don't want counselling.